MUMBAI: Canadian investor Brookfield is already exploring other strategic options in the Indian telecom towers space and will still try to salvage its long pending acquisition of Reliance Communications’ (RCom) towers, although at a revised price after RCom’s merger talks with Aircel fell through on Sunday.

However, the valuation of the RCom towers will need to be “seriously revised” given that half of the basis of the earlier value was future growth promise of the Aircel, RCom combine, said a person familiar with the development.

“Brookfield is committed to forming a tower company in India.”

Brookfield is all set to put its binding $800 million-$1 billion offer for the independent tower assets of Vodafone and Idea in the first week of October. It is competing with ATC and IDFC Alternatives to bag the 20,000 tower portfolio. The following month, it also plans to compete for acquiring a controlling stake in Bharti Infratel, said sources aware of the development.

“The RCom deal is not dead yet for Brookfield after investing so much time, effort and money. They even hired a CEO for the business who himself is a tower company veteran. A former PE executive is also on board. So expect renegotiations and a much lower valuations now that Aircel’s tennacies will not be factored in,” said an official in the know.

One of the sources mentioned above said, sensing trouble, Brookfield had already offered a 20-25% revision in its offer price, something that was not accepted by RCom’s management. This could not be independently verified. Mails sent to Brookfield spokesperson did not elicit a response till this went to print.

In its statement RCom said, “The company will continue to implement its plans for monetisation of its tower and fiber assets, as already announced.” “There are no great assets left in the tower sector, but a string of a few average ones could make a business given that Airtel, Idea-Vodafone, and Jio will need to expand quickly to compete,” said a person close to the deals.

The Indian telecom sector is expected to emerge with only three strong private operators as the others fall by the way-side in the wake of scathing competition. The reduction in players should reduce irrational pricing and therefore improve profitability.

RCom had announced signing of the binding agreement with Brookfield in December 2016 for a Rs 11,000-crore deal to sell its tower business. The deal received necessary regulatory clearances, the latest being the NCLT approvals.

Since 2015, RCom has been trying to sell the tower portfolio to deleverage its balance sheet. Prior to Brookfield, it signed a non-binding agreement with a TPG-led consortium but those talks failed too.

“The previously investment in a portfolio of over 40,000 towers from Reliance Telecom is conditional on, among other standard conditions, the merger of RCom with Aircel. These initiatives are still underway and as such, closing of the transaction is anticipated by the end of the year,” the investor had said in a release in August.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS